RED: Scarlet and other products to go up in price in the new year …

If you’re thinking about cashing out some equity to pick up a RED Scarlet, you better do it before January 1st. As promised, the Scarlet -X will be going on in price, pretty substantially, in the new year …

“Price for Scarlet-X, including Brain, Side SSD and Canon aluminum mount (auto-focus support) is $9,750 if ordered before December 31st, 2011. After Jan. 1st, 2012 the price for Scarlet will be $9700 for the Brain only.” – RED Press Release

Currently, users can get the Scarlet, with Brain, Canon mount and Side SSD for about the same price as the brain only. And RED won’t allow users to buy the mount and Side SSD piece meal, only as part of a package. So in the end, you’ll be paying another $1950 for the same kit after the first as you can right now. Other prices going up include the Epic-X Brain, which will skyrocket from $$28,000 to $34,500. The Red Touch LCD will go up about $350 to $1950. Additionally, the RED Pro I/O Module and Pro Battery Module (Dual) are also going up nearly $900 and $250 in price respectively in the New Year. This is interesting because according to reports, those modules aren’t even out yet and probably won’t be until 2012. So what’s up with a 2011 price? All other prices, including the RED EPIC-M and RED ONE packages remain the same through 2012, as is the Mysterium-X upgrade for RED ONE.

Specs:

The RED Scarlet-X shoots stills at 5K, and then shoots video at decreasing resolutions depending on it’s usage: 4K at 25FPS (4096×2160), then 3K at 48fps, 2K at 60fps, and 1K at 120fps – while still managing to keep color depth consistent thanks to the proprietary RED Raw codec. The Scarlet will also shoot in 1080p. It uses the same Super 35-sized 14 mega pixel Mysterium-X processor as the RED Epic-X, and can use either Canon EF and Arri Alexa PL mount lenses. Output wise, the Scarlet send out 1080p 4:2:2, 720p 4:2:2 SMPTE Timecode, HANC Metadata, 24-bit 48Khz Audio – which can be recorded as either 2 channel uncompressed or 4 channel (optional). Dynamic range runs 13.5 stops, up to 18 stops with HDRx™ 6 fps with 5K FF and HDRx On 12 fps with 4K HD and HDRx™ On.

Clearly, the 2011 RED price point has been an incentive to get cameramen and DPs to buy into the new technology at a discount and that the new price is the actual price of the Scarlet system. That isn’t surprising when you have a new product and want to get buzz going by getting as many units out in the wild as you can. That will translate to more footage being posted online for others to drool over. But indy shooters need to act now, because RED has been saying since it’s launch in November that the price is going up, and there’s little doubt that won’t be delayed.